Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Giroir Scoffs At Criticism Over Testing Delays; Azar Blames Delays On States
Politico: U.S. Testing Czar: Everyone Who 'Needs' A Covid-19 Test Can Get One
Admiral Brett Giroir, the Trump administration coronavirus testing czar, said that anyone who “needs” a coronavirus test can get one but he acknowledged that the average turnaround time for tests is too long as states smash records for numbers of cases. Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," he pushed back at former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney who earlier this month called his family’s difficulties obtaining tests promptly “inexcusable" this many months into the pandemic. (Roubein, 7/26)
The Hill: Coronavirus Testing Czar: Nobody On Task Force 'Afraid To Bring Up Anything' To Trump
Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services who is leading the administration’s coronavirus testing efforts, said Sunday that nobody on the White House coronavirus task force is afraid to press President Trump on the need to expand testing. “Everyone at the administration understands the importance of testing. Nobody in the task force is afraid to bring up anything either to the vice president or president,” Giroir said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Klar, 7/26)
Politico: Azar Blames Testing Delays On States
HHS Secretary Alex Azar Sunday blamed the current delays in coronavirus testing on the states, which he said have been too slow to spend federal dollars to boost the country’s testing amid the virus's spread. The Trump administration has frequently sought to put the responsibility for the coronavirus response on governors and local officials, even as many public health officials as well as governors have called for a coordinated national emergency response. (Roubein, 7/26)
In other testing news —
San Francisco Chronicle: Richer, Whiter Bay Area Cities Got Coronavirus Testing Quickly. Low-Income Areas Didn’t
As the coronavirus dug into the Bay Area’s low-income Latino and Black neighborhoods this spring, doctors and community leaders pleaded for more testing sites. But even as access to testing grew in wealthier, whiter parts of several Bay Area counties, community testing sites lagged or offered only limited hours in communities of color where the virus was spreading fastest, according to a Chronicle analysis of test-site data from March through mid-July. (Dizikes and Palomino, 7/26)
Sacramento Bee: Testing Delays A New Hurdle For CA Contact Tracing Teams
A surge in COVID-19 cases and a shortage of contact tracers has for weeks hampered Sacramento County’s efforts to contact and warn people exposed to coronavirus. Now, an additional hurdle is inhibiting the county’s contact tracing: testing slowdowns. Delays to get test appointments and longer waiting periods while labs turn around results mean cases land on investigators’ desks long after a person should have been told to start quarantining. (7/26)
ABC News: Falling Through The Cracks: Overwhelmed System Leads To Coronavirus Tests Mishandled, Delayed
Two hours after getting in line, with the Atlanta sun beating down on the hood of her car, Andrea S. Mitchell pulled up at the drive-thru test site. Rolling down the window, she took her uniquely barcoded kit from a volunteer. But there was someone else's name on the bag. (Pezenik and David, 7/26)
